Maria Grace Saffery, Salisbury, to Anne Whitaker, Bratton, Wednesday, 6 May 1812.

Salisbury Wednesday Morng May 6th 1812

   I have neither time, nor retirement, nor the spirit of composition, (as our witty Friend calls it) to elicit my entangled thoughts or rather buried thoughts this Morng, but I have inclination, a tender, predominant inclination, to speak a few words with my dearest Anne. Her letter I would answer more at large and on one subject of it, I would rather hold personal communication. This I gladly remember she bids me hope for very speedily.  In the mean time, conceive of me as much indebted to your epistolary efforts. I do all I can, to collect the spirit of them in my melancholy hours and I trust their invigorating influence is sometimes felt; yet I feel my Anna, that if I gird up the loins of Mind, an omnipotent energy must give the moral capability whatever be the adopted means.

   My health is just now suffering the appropriate interruption wh I need not detail, and you need not consider as claiming either your surprise or solicitude. My dear S– is now certainly better, and begins to talk, as is common to such unprofitable Patients, rather disdainfully of his doctor, Mr Smith. The children are tolerably; you will see what I complain of in Samuel.

   We thank you for your manifold kindnesses to our dear little Son. His Father read his letter with all the indulgence he could wish for; & more tenderness than he can possibly estimate, with a heart truly parental, & eyes, that on such occasions readily overflow – he has replied in a few lines, written not only in great haste but while enduring no very small measure of pain & languor. Philip will of course not throw them about; nor make a display of them, except to his Uncle & you.

   A letter reached us from Ardleigh Hall this morng and the intelligence seems to be of the right kind; your Lucy begs her love. She is very grateful for your letter & intends answering in two or three days. She was poorly yesterday, & did not choose to send a mere apology for an Epistle, such as I dare venture on you have forgotten the Tune! and I suppose this omission could not be specified in her letter to you.

   I had anticipated Ryland’s want of medicine, wh I cd rather wish, than expect her to do without at present. What I sent on Friday, will be sufficient yet perhaps Lucy will write in time to send by the midnight Coach for Saturday. Otherwise she may present her own letter on your arrival by the way, I want to know more exactly, when your route commences &c &c. Have you heard anything of your Brother’s preaching at Leigh for Philips in connexion with Murch, & Saunders? There is a ding at the door; which I take to be an intimation from Mr Thomas Whitaker. At all events if he journeys homeward to day, he must call soon. You will hear from him, of Bodenham and its Inhabitants.

   Lucy, Salter, & Mason would all charge me with their specific remembrances to yourself. Ryland, Mrs W. & the children, now, you must do them, or rather me, the favour of expressing, & distributing, as your own conjectures may decide.  Mr S– and myself, beg kind & suitable regards to your fair Guest, and breathe for her sake, our good wishes towards the beautiful vale of Evesham where we hope the Genius of Peace invested with the horn of Plenty is awaiting her arrival. This vale is termed the granary of that region.

   Adieu for I am getting figurative, a common excuse for being tedious; be thankful therefore, that I hasten my adieu.

                                 Ever your’s, and faithfully,

                                             Maria Grace Saffery

Our love to all the Philips, grave & gay, & to each dear little representative of the Senior Person. I think with some concern that I generally fail in expressing my remembrances to yr Mother, Jane, and Mr & Mrs Blatch. My poor Father, I do not forget, but there alas! the past, always seems to impose Silence on the future. In what fetters of despondency are the natural feelings enslaved in this Instance!

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed.,  Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 329-30 (annotated version); Saffery/Whitaker Papers, acc. 142, I.B.2a.(1.), Angus Library. Address: Mrs Philip Whitaker | Bratton Farm. No postmark. At the time of the above letter, five-year-old Samuel Saffery was enjoying an extended stay with his aunt and uncle at Brattton.

Charles Cole was the Baptist minister at Whitchurch, Hampshire. William Murch and Samuel Saunders were both Baptist ministers at Frome. Murch (1784-1859) was the minister of the Baptist congregation at Sheppard’s Barton, Frome, from 1806 to 1827, replacing John Foster, the Baptist writer. Murch would later serve as tutor and president of Stepney College, London, from 1827 to 1843. Saunders (1780-1835) studied at Bristol Academy (1800-03) and in 1803 was ordained at the Baptist church in Penzance, Cornwall. He assumed the pastorate of the Baptist congregation at Badcox Lane in Frome in 1806, succeeding John Kingdon. Saunders left Frome in 1826 to become pastor of the Baptist church at Byrom Street in Liverpool, remaining there until his death in 1835. Others mentioned above include Harriet Ryland, Caroline Whitaker of Bratton, and Anna Jane Whitaker, her daughter.